A Throne of Grace

Hello again, this is Dave Scherrerrer with 100 Fold Ministries and you found Kingdom Offerings, our podcast environment. In just a little bit, I want to talk about boldly coming before the throne of grace in prayer. It's a foundational gospel of the kingdom idea, but we need to clear up something first because the last time you met me here in this podcast, I took off on Jiminy Cricket, poor little guy. And I suppose that was mean and it wasn't so much about Jiminy Cricket, I mean he's fine as he is. It was the idea of wishing upon a star. And as I said, I love the sentiment that when you wish upon a star, it makes no difference who you are. I like that. That's great. Equal opportunity wishes. It's great. It's a beautiful ballad. It's just that the idea that we believe with enough power or we have enough faith, then good things happen. Good things have to happen. As if there is a cosmic equalizer out there that balances things out morally, a justice force of some sort so that things end up even, I guess. It gets confusing right here. The evil one, Satan, the prince of the power of the air, has taken these half-truths and paired them up with bold-faced lies and then people in this world have been eating up these lies as though they were truth. Take the idea of karma, for instance. What does it mean when I say I believe in karma? Is there some kind of divine balance scale that balances things based on my good or bad deeds? That's kind of how I've heard it used. Or is it a prayer of sorts to an impersonal force that writes wrongs based exactly on what? I mean, can I appeal to karma or does it just happen like a good wind or a bad wind? Is that based on my actual acts or on my good intentions? Do those count? I hope they do. I don't think they do. Let me just say that there is a cosmic dynamic force out there, but the Buddhist-Hindu concept of karma is not what I'm talking about. I kind of feel like life itself is the evidence that just being a good person doesn't mean that good things will happen to you. There are plenty of good people out there who have very difficult lives and, I guess, bad people who seem to lead very privileged lives. It's different for us. In the Christian faith, we rely on God's justice that righteousness will be rewarded and that unrighteousness will be judged, and this is a good thing. Our scriptures hold prayer and justice differently than the other religions because, in our case, it's all about God, not me. It's not about me and my good luck or my comfort or my convenience. It's all about His glory. I love how Philip Yancey describes his understanding of prayer. Let me share a couple of quotes with you from his book, Prayer. He says, For me, prayer is not so much setting out a shopping list of requests for God to consider as it is a way of keeping company with God, of enjoying His presence. We're going to come back to that because that's the idea of boldly coming before the throne of grace to enjoy God. Philip Yancey also says, The main purpose of prayer is not to make life easier nor to gain magical powers, but to know God. See, I think that's the main point. So the Bible does invite us to boldly come before the throne of grace, but, I guess, what does that mean? When you think of God's throne, you can't help but think of His majesty and His glory. A throne room, of course, is a kingdom metaphor. Kings sit on thrones, and they rule from there. From the throne, a king will wield justice. I know that for some, God's throne represents a place of judgment where an angry God stands ready to punish, and for those of us whose Christian experience has been one of fear and guilt, that's not a great image. But for a believer in Jesus, God's throne is not a place of judgment or fear, because all of our sins have been reconciled, they've been paid in full. So now the throne room is a place of grace and ultimate thanksgiving. So I'm pulling this from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 4 tells us, Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So let's pick that verse apart, but I want to start at the back end of this verse. The throne of grace part. We know that grace, theologians call, is God's unmerited favor that He shows towards us. It is God giving us what we don't deserve. So the throne of grace is not about receiving salvation in this context, it's about receiving help in your time of need, just as the verse says. Whatever your need is, you don't have to turn elsewhere. The first place you should run to is the very throne room of God, because He has promised to help you when you are in need. All right, now let's go back to the first part of this verse that tells us that we can come with confidence into His royal presence. To come boldly means that we can come without fear before God's throne. So just to be clear, we do not come before God's throne with prideful arrogance as if we belong there. Actually the very idea of coming boldly into God's presence kind of makes me shudder a little bit. It means we come before God, no, with a humble confidence, knowing that He welcomes us there. As a child approaches his loving father, he's going to do that with love and respect. God has invited His people to sit at His feet in His presence, and this is a privilege reserved only for those who truly belong to Him. The verses that come just before our invitation to come boldly to the throne room tell us why we have that privilege. Our first verse was from Hebrews 4.16. These are from Hebrews 4.14 and 15. The writer says, Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but he was in all points tempted as we are, and yet without sin. This is all very good news for us. It's kingdom news. We can come boldly before the King's throne of grace because we not only have a supreme king, but we also have a high priest in Jesus Christ who has gone before us to make a way to deal with our sin. He made the way. He's created access that allows us to enter into God's very presence without fear. That's why we don't come arrogantly. We are only there because of what Christ has done for us and for no other reason. Because he has invited us in by name. This is Thanksgiving weekend as I record this podcast. I trust that whenever you listen to this, you will reflect on the King's throne room with gratefulness, with gratitude, knowing that the Christ who sits there with the Father has paid the price for your access. Come in, he says. Come into the presence of your King. This is Dave Scherrer in Kingdom Offerings. Come and enjoy 100 Fold Ministries, our webpage at 100FoldMinistries.org and see what else we might have for you. Have a great time.